The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Reported security incidents#1: A Taliban shadowy district governor was killed in an operation in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Ghazni overnight, the provincial police chief said Thursday. “A local Taliban leader named Adam Khan who served as the insurgent shadowy district governor for Ghazni’s Andar district were killed and two suspected Taliban fighters detained in an operation conducted by police in Ali Qala area of the district Wednesday night,” police chief Zarawar Zahid told reporters in a press briefing here.#2: Nine militants were killed and three hideouts demolished in airstrikes in the upper Orakzai tribal region, DawnNews reported on Thursday. According to assistant political agent Rafiq Mohmand, the airstrikes took place in the Arghanjo area of the upper Orakzai tribal area.#3: Three soldiers were injured when unidentified people attacked a military convoy with an improvised explosive device (IED) on Bannu-Miranshah road on Wednesday, military sources said. The IED planted on the main road went off when the military convoy was passing through the area. A military vehicle was damaged and three soldiers sustained injuries in the blast.#4: Meanwhile, 10 mortar shells fired from across the border in Afghanistan landed in Loli Faqeeran village of Ghulam Khan area in North Waziristan, officials said.#5: Two members of a polio team were killed on Thursday in a roadside blast in
Khurram Agency. According to details, a roadside bomb went off in Mani Khel area of the upper
Khurram Agency killing two polio workers. Polio workers were traveling on a
motorcycle to a nearby area where they were to administer polio drops to
children.#6: At least three people were killed and four others injured when a bomb exploded outside a commercial plaza in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday night, local media reported. Local Urdu TV channel Dunya quoted unknown police sources as saying that the bomb was detonated by a remote control outside a commercial plaza in Sohrab Goth area of Karachi, the largest commercial hub of the country.#7: At least 22 people including children and women were killed or injured following separate explosions in eastern and northern parts of Afghanistan on Wednesday. According to local authorities in northern Faryab province of at least 15 people including three Afghan police officers were injured and an Afghan woman was killed following a blast in this province. Provincial security chief spokesman Syed Massoud Yaqoubi confirming the report said the incident took place after explosives packed in a motorcycle went off in Pashtun Kot district.

#8: In the meantime local authorities in eastern Afghanistan said a bomb exploded in an open-air market in Khost province, killing two small children. Provincial governor media office following a statement said the bomb was hidden under a stall in the main bazaar in Sabari district. The source further added it went off Wednesday while a group of police officers were passing by. The statement says no police officers were affected, though another four civilians were wounded in the blast.